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Marantz SA-14S1

1. DSD over PCM DoP is an open standard Method for transferring DSD Audio over PCM Frames On the DAC side the signal will then be converted back from PCM to the original DSD stream without any loss It s just a way of sending data in an already known standard There are two types of resolu tion available These are 2 8MHz as used on SACD but as well 5 6MHz so double the resolution Files will be marked as DSD2 8 DSD64 or DSD5 6 DSD128 The 64 or 128 just mark the multiple of the standard CD sample frequency You remember Correct 44 1kHz 64 x 44 1khz 2 8MHz and 128 x 44 1kHz 5 6MHz MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 05 2013 13 White paper mara mntz USB B CONNECTION IN DETAIL High End audio DAC mode through USB B port First of all this port is using the most advanced technologies to get the best sound from your audio files There is no limitation by the NA 11S1 audio DAC as it handles 2ch PCM and DSD by DoP provided by the PC MAC You can enjoy any file stored on your computer and which can be played back by the media player on the PC as long as it will be outputted via the USB A connection on the PC The USB B port is on the player here the NA 11S1 The USB cable pointing to the Marantz needs to be a USB B type one A quick overview of the USB B possibilities 1st It will bypass the audio board of your PC Mac in order to avoid all digital noise from your PC Mac 2nd It will al
2. Windows 7 is recommended Windows XP doesn t support DSD streaming Connect NA 11S1 by USB cable to the PC Install jRiver Media Center setup jRiver Media Center Enjoy NO St O NOTE Screen shots on your PC might look different depending on software version However setup will be similar as described here Www marantz eu 1 Install the NA 11S1 USB driver on the PC Download the driver from the www marantz com website visiting the NA 1181 product site Installation guidelines are attached to it Please follow accordingly NOTE Never connect the NA 11S1 before having installed the driver Operation will not occur correctly if connected to the computer before the dedicated driver has been installed 2 Connect NA 11S1 by USB cable to the PC Connect the PC to NA 11S1 by a USB A to USB B cable and select the PC input on the NA 11S1 by remote or input button on the front The PC will automatically detect the new USB device and will show a graphic similar to below Then you can proceed with step 3 ML Your device is ready to use gt X Device driver software installed successfully 8 49 PM 4 24 2010 gt p P HQ 3 Install jRiver Media Center The software can be downloaded as a trial version at the www jRiver com site After download just execute the installation Restart your computer and open the Media Center software MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 11S1 05 2013 16 White paper ACA AY
3. is the USB DAC DAC devices The Driver will allow the NA 11S1 to control the clock so the rhythm in which it receives the audio information This is called oo eset Asynchronous mode and is needed to avoid Jitter which dete Sounds USB riorates the signal quality It will also give important information to the PC about the specification of the connected USB DAC Once the driver is installed on the PC the USB DAC here NA 11S1 can be directly selected in the software media player as the output device Media player software running on your computer to play soundcard back the audio files 2 Mixer this one will add the Windows Sounds to the original signal if not by passed 3 Kernel handling all the process to transfer the digital audio signal 4 Driver ensures the audio signal will be properly transferred to the USB output in asynchronous mode USB DAC defines the clock and timing of the audio package sent 3 There is a need for a good USB cable to connect the player to your Computer It is not recommended to use a cable longer than 5m And the quality of shielding will also have some influence on the sound quality It is recommended to test several cables to optimise performance Audio handling inside a PC To better understand this take a look at the audio handling dia gram below From the Media Player the audio will be send by Direct Sound the default setting through the Mix
4. other device to dramatically increase their audio performance On the image below you can see these inputs together with the USB B input on the right MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 05 2013 12 White paper AJACA AYS mara mntz AUDIO FORMATS AND TAGS Let s first make a quick review of the most used audio format For this we need just to step back to the original digital audio source on the market the CD To get the analogue audio signal stored ona CD it needs to be digitized and this is done with a technology called PCM signal Pulse Code Modulation For the CD the PCM signal is fixed to a 44 1 kHz sample frequency and 16bit resolution so it is often referred to 44 1 kHz 16bit Packed with a special algorithm this information is stored on a CD If you store it on a computer the format will change to be compatible with the PC operation system On a PC the equivalent of PCM from a CD gets the file extension WAV Waveform Audio File Format WAVE WAV On a Mac this will be AiFF Audio Interchange File Format However the files require a big memory space Therefore formats have been introduced to the markets which compress audio to reduce the memory space required Some are lossy data reduced lost others just compress the file but keep the original quality lossless formats Metadata TAGs Beside the need for large size memory there is another disadvan tage of WAV files WAV can only carry v
5. than 2 8 www marantz eu ONLINE PORTALS FOR MUSIC DOWNLOADS Here just a list of some interesting portals for high resolution audio More are out there and number Is growing Blue Coast Records http bluecoastrecords com Downloads NOW http downloadsnow net 2L www 2l no hires index htm MA Recordings htto marecordings com Cybele Records www cybele de David Elias www davidelias com Ototoy from Japan http ototoy jp feature index php sound_and_recording Wheatus http wheatus com HD Tracks www hdtracks com Highres Audio www highresaudio com Naim Music www naimlabel com Linn Records www linnrecords com Qobuz www qobuz com Free DSD Audio Downloads Blue Coast Records and AudioGate http audiogate bluecoastrecords com More can be found on http www audiostream com content hd music download sites http dsd guide com where can you find dsd music downloads MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 05 2013 12 White paper AJACA AYS mara mntz AUDIO TRANSMISSION MODES Looking for bit perfect sound Audio transmission modes explain in details Windows direct sound It s the standard playback mode on a Windows PC It goes thru the kernel mixer that acts as an interface of the OS kernel between the various sound sources in a PC PC sound MIDI players etc and the sound card s driver All the various sources can produce sounds with different sampling frequencies
6. ASAPI needs a bit more CPU power than plain kernel streaming But WASAPI gives access to a bigger choice of players WASAPI Event Style is bit perfect Www marantz eu Windows ASIO and ASIO4ALL ASIO means Audio Stream Input Output and is another method to bypass the Audio Mixer and in addition the Kernel to let the media player directly talk to the USB DAC ASIO was built for XP but it works on all OS ASIO was created to overcome the USB Audio 1 1 limitations On USB 1 1 only 48 kHz 16bit in direct sound mode was possible but with ASIO 96 kHz 24bit ASIO is bit perfect Mac OS Core Audio Core Audio is the Mac equivalent for the Windows Audio Mixer and handles any kind of audio information input and output Core audio works in floating point like WASAPI a double conversion is necessary on both player and driver side Core Audio is not bit perfect Mac OS hog mode The difference between Core audio and hog mode operation is that Core audio allows more than one client to access the driver at the same time The Core more mode will have the same issue that we already see on the Direct Sound streaming in windows so we will lose sound quality To avoid this on Mac we will use the hog mode The hog mode needs to be activated in the Media Player The mode will allow the player to get first priority when started and block all other audio devices so in this case we will get the best sound without any mixing pro
7. However to reach the above some equipment Is needed which needs to be set up and adjusted This document will guide you through this journey to PC Audio It will provide you with the information you need to get a good understanding for the topic As a reference product we will use the Marantz Reference Network Audio Player NA 11S1 with USB DAC www marantz eu MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 05 2013 11 White paper AJACA AYS mara mntz The NA 11S1 has been designed to give you access to a wide range of music from a variety of different sources such as e Internet Radio via your internet connection e all your music stored on a PC Mac or NAS network attached storage drive through to your home computer network e stream your music stored on an iDevice or in an iTunes library by using AirPlay e files stored on a Smartphone USB stick or a Portable Hard Drive via the front USB A connection e files stored on your computer by a direct connection of the PC Mac via the rear USB B connection In this document we will mainly focus on the last option on the list the USB B connectivity as this is the recommended way for music lovers to enjoy their music in the best quality possible The player acts as a DAC Digital to Analogue Converter in fact it replaces the soundcard of your PC MAC and directly converts the digital music signal to analogue domain to hand it over to the amplifier But first let s dig a b
8. Mac operation there is no dedicated driver installation required at least not for the NA 11S1 However this might be different for other USB DAC devices 2 Connect NA 11S1 by USB cable to the PC Connect the PC to NA 11S1 by a USB A to USB B cable and select the PC input on the NA 11S1 by remote or input button on the front The Mac will automatically detect the new USB device 3 Install Audirvana The software can be downloaded as a trial version at the www audirvana com site After download just execute the installation Restart your computer and open the Audirvana software 4 Setup Audirvana player Open your Audirvana Music Player and select Audirvana Plus gt and Preferences Et Paar Play i About Audirvana Plus Debug Info Preferences 3 Check for Updates Load License File Services gt v iTunes Integrated Mode Add files to iTunes Hide Audirvana Plus 3H Hide Others KEH Show All www marantz eu A setup box with general setting will be opened M Use Apple IR Remote M Use keyboard media keys M for volume contro Playlists M Use UTF 8 character encoding for M3U playlists M Autostart playback when opened from outside Reload last playlist at start Volume Control es Mouse control axis Vertical Application updates M Automatically check for updates Daily _ Automatically download updates mita anii au miata Mii amme mt a mM Select the Audio system
9. S maraniz 4 Setup jRiver Media Center Open your Media Player and select tools gt and Option Media Center Acquire Images Rip Disc Burn Disc Amazon AMG Google Images Wiki YouTube Advanced Tools gt ray charles Send To Library Tools Cover Art gt a gt Ey Genres Locate gt AN amp Recent Albums A 3D Albums Language gt EJ Connected Medi Options ji ay aan Genius Loves Company Nice Work Images r Video Performer Store DSD Showcase Vol Files Podcasts Name Track Playlists ee DSD Showcase Vol I by Eric Bibb 2012 Drives amp Devices gt Services amp Plug ins gt Meeting atthe building Eric Bibb Action Window kas P Burn Disc Rip Disc B Sync Handheld T Camera D Build Playlist ie Tag This will open below setup window select Audio then on the right Output Mode Here you have to change the Mode to Wasapi Event Style In case of Windows XP please select Kernel Streaming his is to bypass the Windows Audio Mixer B Handheld Images D Library amp Folders Audio Output ASIO Direct Sound Disk Writer Kernel Streaming Null Output gec UASA synchronization None M WASAPI Event Style li T disk not zone specific useful for HDMI audio Switch tracks Cross fade aggressive 4s Do not play silence leading and trailing Use gapl
10. USB key a Smartphone or a portable HDD This is a synchronous connection and is the simplest method of implementing USB audio from portable devices This is a USB A port The Second USB B port on the rear panels is for connecting a PC or Mac directly and supports not only PCM signals up to 192 kHz 24bits but also DSD 2 8MHz and 5 6 MHz for maximised versatility This counts for the NA 11S1 Other USB DAC s might not support all resolutions Additionally for the NA 11S1 a newly developed Ground Signal isolator technology helps to reduce PC noise for the highest quality sound This is a USB B port Type B Using this connection will bypass your PC audio board soundcard to directly access the high quality DAC of the external player There are other technologies to it such as asynchronous mode and bit transparent mode but this will be explained at a later stage when we are going to explain how to use this connection and how to get the best audio quality Another big benefit of this PC to DAC connection is that there is no file limitation as everything playing on your PC Mac media player will be reproduced by the NA 11S1 as long as it is a stereo signal in PCM or DSD Just to complete the list of digital inputs we need to mention here the optical and the coaxial digital connection By these the NA 11S1 can be used as high end DAC as well for other devices with this type of digital output for example an Apple TV or
11. White paper XAI AYN maraniz MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO Contents Introduction e Introduction As you know in recent years the way to listen to music has changed There has been a progression from the use of physical e Digital Connections media to a more digital approach allowing access to unlimited digital entertainment content via the internet or from the library e Audio Formats and TAGs stored on a computer It can be iTunes Windows Media Player or streaming music or watching YouTube and many more The com e System requirements puter is a centre piece to all this entertainment e System Setup for PC and MAC The computer is just a simple player and in a standard setup the performance is just average or even less e Tips and Tricks But there is also a way to lift the experience to a complete new level of enjoyment making the computer a good player by giving the e High Resolution audio download responsibility for the audio to an external component for example a USB DAC A DAC is a Digital to Analogue Converter and the USB e Audio transmission modes terminal is connected to the USB output of the computer Doing so we won t be only able to enjoy the above mentioned standard audio but gain access to high resolution audio too exceeding the CD quality of 16 bit 44 1kHz It is possible to enjoy studio master quality as 24 bit 192kHz recordings or even the SACD format DSD with a bitstream at 2 8MHz and even 5 6MHz
12. cessing MAC Integer mode Addressing directly the HAL AppleHAL_2 gives the possibility to bypass the two main overhead Processes of the above standard mode e Mixing buffer e Float to DAC native format conversion In Integer Mode the player software supplies a stream already formatted in the native DAC format MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 05 2013 13
13. e Fi Volume Protection ean o Podcast Q Remote Control ALON NOTE Changes take effect once playback is stopped Type your search here In this setup box please select Marantz NA 11S1 as Audio device All outputted audio signals will be now send to the USB output to which the NA 11S1 is connected to The NA 11S1 is now your soundcard for all music playback via the Media Center player Buffering This doesn t need to be changed however if you experi ence drop outs while playing back your music you can try to im prove by adjusting the buffer size Hardware buffer size 100 milliseconds recommended NOTE Increasing buffering makes playback less likely to skip and hiccup but also increases the time it takes for cross fades and smooth seeks to kick in OK Canel www marantz eu MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 05 2013 18 White paper ss AS maraniz For DSD streaming DoP Mode one more setting is required Please note this is only possible for Windows Vista and newer operation systems Windows XP doesn t support this Audio Output Output mode WASAPI Event Style Output mode settings Settings DSP amp output format ing None recommended x None recommended nded S PDIF synchronization None poe ens disk not zone specific B Handheld seful for HDMI audio Images I Library amp Folders Switch trac
14. e Access mode hog mode and the Integer mode activated Now you are ready to enjoy your high end audio files Enjoy MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 11S1 05 2013 11 White paper WAZ AA maraniz TIP AND TRICKS TO GET THE BEST FROM YOUR USB DAC 1 Select a good USB cable sound will be strongly influ enced by the USB cable interference amp noise 2 USB Cable Not longer than 5m and the quality of shielding will also have some influence on the sound quality Test several cables to optimise performance Try adding a Ferrite Core as used on some network cables 3 Westrongly recommend you to add a Ferrite Core on your network cable to minimize noise interferences Ferrite Core is shown below 4 Forthe PC Mac an SSD hard disc is preferable SSD stands for Solid State Disk and has in comparison to standard hard disc no rotating elements inside An other step to reduced interference Sound will be even smoother and more detailed 5 Use your PC or Mac only for Music listening Kill all unnecessary running apps There is no need for a high performance super fast PC Standard processor is just fine 6 Ifyou use Spotify streaming service make sure you set the data rate to 320kps highest resolution 7 DSD playback The NA 11S1 supports DSD2 8Mhz 64 and DSD5 6Mhz 128 In case of DSD2 8 playback DSD 2 8224MHz will be shown For DSD5 6 it is DSD gt 2 8224MHz this gt means bigger
15. er while Kernel streaming and Wasapi Event Style bypasses it The dedicate driver installed will allow the NA 11S1 to take the lead for the data re quest this is called Asynchronous Mode 1 we will need a bit perfect is a player that will allow send ing the complete data bit to bit without skipping or modifying any of the original data So we will get the integer signal from the Original file Standard media players such as iTunes and Windows Media Player do not support bit perfect transmission Furthermore they have limitations on the playable file formats Direct Sound DS Asynchronous That s why we recommend players like jRiver Media Center 18 for PC MAC is in beta testing phase and Audirvana time being Mac only Other software media players are available on the market ca Mixer PCM a Windows stream via but we like to focus on these two for now as they support not only aa Sounds USB PCM Signals but DSD streaming via DoP as well Kernel Streaming KS For the Bit Perfect transmission we need to make some setting on the computer and the Software Player to get everything working together smoothly These settings will allow us to bypass the Win dows Sound Mixer see below graphic and on Mac we will give the priority to the audio sent to the player over any other sound These settings will affect the Audio Output Mode and key tech nologies here are Kernel Streaming and WASAPI Event Style beside other
16. ery limited metadata s tags However tags are very useful as these contain information about the artist title album cover art etc in other words every thing that is needed to build up and maintain a music library easily The WAV format isn t the best choice to do so That s why it isn t so often used even though the quality is like the original CD Other formats that do support tags are listed below and are pre ferred over WAV but we have to be careful because of the quality Let s start from the Lossy audio compression formats that are used most due to their small size and ease to exchange on the web However as lossy already tells you they don t offer same quality as WAV MP3 is a data reduced lossy audio compression format that saves a lot of space but also decreases the audio quality It s available in different compressions like 96kbs kilobits per second 128 192 and 320 kbs The higher the number the better the quality AAC the most used for iPod s iPhone s and iTunes is also a com pression format and also lossy format WMA is the Microsoft Windows Media Audio Format and It s also a compressed and lossy format All are used because of lower data less memory required and faster transmission when downloading from the internet Www marantz eu However aS memory size is no big issue anymore and internet speed is high there is no good argument left today to go for data reduced formats as shown above So le
17. ess for sequential album tracks Stop Seek amp Skip Seek Smooth normal Stop Fadeout fast Pause Fade fast Jump behavior Forward 30 seconds backward 10 seconds Volume Volume mode System Volume 0O Volume Protection fyl ieee An NOTE Changes take effect once playback is stopped Type your search here OK I L www marantz eu MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 11S1 05 2013 7 White paper wiZ AA maraniz Now click on the line just under Output setting mode This will open a new window e Burning CD DVD amp BD ka Encoding 8 File Location File Types General B Handheld Images D Library amp Folders Audio Output Output mode WASAPI Event Style Settings DSP amp output format Bitstreaming Yes DSD over PCM DoP x Prebuffering 6 seconds recommended Play silence at startup for hardware synchronization None C Play files from memory instead of disk not zone specific L Disable display from turning off useful for HDMI audio Track Change Switch tracks Cross fade aggressive 4s Do not play silence leading and trailing Use gapless for sequential album tracks Stop Seek amp Skip Seek Smooth normal Stop Fadeout fast Pause Fade fast Jump behavior Forward 30 seconds backward 10 seconds Volume Volume mode System Volum
18. it more into the different ways of accessing music to get a better understanding and clarify some terminology When you finish the document you will have all the information you need to get the best audio performance from your PC Audio and specifically from the NA 11S1 DIGITAL CONNECTIONS LAN Local Area Network Let s start off with the LAN connection and it possibilities You most probably are already familiar with it so we will just touch on it The LAN connection gives you access to the internet via the router and to all the PC Mac or NAS Drives located in your network You can directly access more than 10 000 internet radio stations and Podcasts and stream music stored on your PC Mac and also from a NAS drive All your downloaded or locally ripped music is accessible It is also important to know that there is some limitation to the file formats It is most common that the following files can be handled by network players MP3 WMA WAV AAC FLAC and by better players the high resolution ALAC FLAC HD and also WAV files In addition you will have direct access to internet streaming services such as Spotify and last fm and you can use AirPlay to stream music from an iDevice or iTunes Android smartphones will use the DLNA capability here Www marantz eu Other digital inputs As you will discover there are two different USB ports on the NA 11S1 The first of these USB A is conveniently placed on the front so you can plug in a
19. ks Cross fade aggressive 4s Do not play silence leading and trailing Use gapless for sequential album tracks Stop Seek amp Skip Remote Control Seek Smooth normal Stop Fadeout fast x Pause Fade fast um or Forward 30 seco a secon Jump behavior F d 30 nds backward 10 ds gt Podcast Volume Volume mode System Volume O Volume Protection a Ti al 10N NOTE Changes take effect once playback is stopped Type your search here Just Select DSD over PCM only as we don t want to send any Enjoy multichannel as Dolby Digital to our stereo player NA 1181 select PC input on NA 11S1 and start the music track on the Media Player Please note the detail and check DoP format is on DoP and not on Legacy Bitstreaming Formats C Dolby Digital AC3 C Dolby Digital Plus E AC3 Cl Dolby TrueHD Now all settings are done and you can start to enjoy your music Congratulations www marantz eu MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 11S1 05 2013 19 White paper whe AYN maraniz SETUP FOR HIGH END AUDIO WITH AUDIRVANA ON MAC 1 USB driver installation 2 Connect NA 11S1 by USB cable to the PC 3 Install Audirvana 4 Setup Audirvana 5 Enjoy Attention it is MAC iso PC this time NOTE Screen shots on your MAC might look different depending on software version However setup will be similar as described here 1 USB Driver installation For
20. p a PC Mac A Player JRiver or Audirvana A good USB A to USB B Cable i Marantz NA 11S1 Driver NA 17S1 The music files First we need high end audio files like Flac HD and DSF DSD In case you don t have any yet you can work with standard files too It is not just limited to FLAC HD or DSF as we explained before All formats can be played However for the best quality you can get high definition files downloaded from the internet At the end of the document we will list some web sites offering such high end audio tracks Then we need a so called bit perfect player A common thinking is that digital is equal to digital however this is only the case if the data in the received file is bit perfect to the playback file However this often not the case If you are using a PC as a source In a PC the data signal has to pass many stages of input and output before the signal will be outputted via the USB connection to the USB DAC First the computer will use the on board DAC Digital Audio Con verter All computers have an internal DAC generally of poor qual ity simply because the primary purpose of such a machine does not offer any guarantee in terms of quality sound reproduction This is why music lovers often use an external DAC However it is not all about an external DAC The OS operating system running on the computer itself contains a set of functions responsible for processing audio streams more or less ne
21. s Just for the PC environment the Media player for example JRiver default setting is Direct Sound and uses the Mixer So it is neces sary to change the setting to Wasapi Event Style streaming Wasapi stands for Windows Audio Session Application Program ming Interface www marantz eu MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 105 2013 15 ATS Seber wiz AYS maraniz Attention Wasapi is designed to work with Windows Vista and higher but doesn t work on Windows XP For Windows XP Kernel streaming needs to be used But note it doesn t support DSD over DoP ASIO is means Audio Stream Input Output and is another method to bypass the Audio Mixer and in addition the Kernel but we won t go into detail here This mainly covers the PC On a Mac the Mixer is called Audio Core and to bypass it there is a so called hog mode available which needs to be activated in the Media Player like with Wasapi or Kernel Streaming It s called here exclusive mode and integer mode More information on these modes will be given at the end of the Document SETUP FOR PC AND MAC With above you have got the information to understand PC Audio well and we can start to show you by the example of jRiver Media Center for PC and Audirvana for Mac how to reach the best audio performance SETUP FOR HIGH END AUDIO WITH JRIVER MEDIA CENTER ON PC The single steps to follow 1 Install the NA 11S1 USB driver on the PC
22. so be able to bypass the audio mixer in your computer which is a source for distortion Ex The mixer is the DSP of the PC where all sound from any software will be mixed together and sent to the speakers but in order to achieve this mixing the DSP has to convert all different formats coming from different software This this will heavily modify the audio file and lower the sound quality When we bypass the audio mixer the original audio file will be outputted bit perfect no modification to original signal happens 3rd The asynchronous mode as available on the NA 1181 will give control over the timing of audio data transmission to the receiver side USB DAC thereby minimising jitter for best audio performance Ath It s compatible with all file formats including DSD via DoP all the formats that your PC software player can read This differs by USB DAC specification For all these reasons it is worth spending some time to investigate these new possibilities as more and more serious music companies offer High End Audio tracks like FLAC HD in 24bits 192 kHz and DSD files in 2 8Mhz 5 6 MHz for download This allows us to listen to music files with the same High End quality that we had on Super Audio CD s Www marantz eu SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS In order to enjoy the best sound we will now explain how to make it happen List of equipment Audio Files PC Media Player on PC USB DAC cable Driver for USB B DAC USB B DAC tz S am
23. t s have a look at the below no data reduced formats and you will recognise a trend to even exceed the quality level which a standard CD can deliver by new audio formats downloadable from the internet Here are the most common Lossless compression formats ALAC Apple Lossless Audio Codec 24bit 96kHz max most used is 16 bit 44 1 kHz WMA Lossless Windows Media Audio Lossless 24bit 96kHz most used is 16 bit 44 1kHz FLAC Free Lossless Audio Codec it s an open source codec GNU GPL often used is 16 bit 44 1kHz but 24bit 88 2kHz and 24bit 96kHz gained a lot of popularity lately And for high definition audio there is FLAC HD with 192kHz 24bit These 3 are lossless compression formats and also include the useful tag functionalities All above are PCM Pulse Code Modulation Signals however there is another very interesting audiophile format called DSD DSD or Direct Stream Digital is a one bit recording format and is used on SACD the Super Audio CD offering much higher resolu tion than standard audio CD By that it gained a reputation as an audiophile medium If you store the information of an SACD on you PC or download a file from the Internet you will find two file extensions DSF and DFF DSF has the ability to hold metadata TAG and DFF doesn t Both can be played back on your computer running a supporting media player To transfer the digital audio signal via USB a technol ogy will be used known as DoP
24. the kernel mixer will resample all the various audio streams to a unique sam pling frequency and allows them to be mixed before sending them to the audio card But this mix will be at a low frequency standard 44 1 kHz On top of this the mixer will add some treatment dy namic compression tone control loudness control etc so this will generate a low sound quality For this reason we should avoid direct sound mode for the best sound quality This is not bit perfect Windows kernel streaming Kernel streaming is the audiophile playback mode for Windows Standard players such as WMP or iTunes do not support this mode at the moment so a dedicated media player is required The audio data will be sent from the media player directly to the USB DAC by passing the audio mixer This will also need less CPU power So your PC will be more stable and generate less Jitter less errors Now we have a so called bit perfect sound Kernel Streaming is often used on PCs running Windows XP Windows WASAPI WASAPI Windows Audio Standard API was developed for Vista and Seven to replace Direct Sound WASAPI isn t intended to work on Windows XP Standard WASAPI will make use of the Windows sound Mixer and is not bit perfect Windows WASAPI Event Style WASAPI Event Style is the bit perfect version of WASAPI and will by passed the audio mixer The sound quality obtained using WASAPI Event Style is comparable to Kernel Streaming mode W
25. then select Preferred Audio Device click on Change Audirvana Preferences Preferred Audio Device USB High Speed Audio Active Audio Device USB High Speed Audio 44 1 48 88 2 96 176 4 192 353 DSD64 DSD128 Native DSD Capability DSD over PCM standard 1 0 Low level playback options M Exclusive access mode _ Use max 1 0 buffer size M Integer mode Maximum memory allocated for tracks pre load j I 1 I V I I I j j I 1 i I I I T Ez 25mn 44 1kHz 3mn 352 8kHz For bridge devices connected to a DAC Max sample rate limit No Limit Spl rate switching latency None select USB High Speed Audio this is the NA 11S1 This will only appear if the NA 11S1 is connected and set to PC input Audirvana Preferences Sel tobla anis menfncenaA danien ec Built in Output l Y USB High Speed Audio Select Cancel Native DSD Capability DSD over PCM standard 1 0 Low level playback options V Exclusive access mode _ Use max 1 0 buffer size v Integer mode Maximum memory allocated for tracks pre load ee ee 1024 MB 25mn 44 1kHz 3mn 352 8kHz For bridge devices connected to a DAC Max sample rate limit No Limit Spl rate switching latency None MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 05 2013 10 ANTS baler On the Active Audio Device select DSD over PCM standard 1 0 This will authorise DoP functionality Preferred Audio Device USB High Speed Audio Acti
26. utral ideally without altering them This software layer should not interfere with the characteristics of the signal but in practice this is not the case so one source of distortion And ultimately the incoming signal to the DA converter may be very MARANTZ GUIDE TO PC AUDIO NA 1181 05 2013 14 ATS Seber wiZ AA maraniz different than it was initially In addition there are various interfer The goal is to use the Bit Perfect mode also known as Bit ence phenomena due to the mixer that allows different programs transparent mode his means that all the data of the audio file to play sound at the same time mail coming in when you listen is exactly the same as received in the NA 11S1 Note this is not to music for example and it s also related to the environment and possible with any USB DAC The DAC here the NA 11S1 needs to highly disturbed electrical computer support this too Let s have a look to the complete chain 2 We also need a driver for the NA 11S1 only for PC A lot of devices which can have an influence For a PC the driver is very important and you need to install it before connecting your NA 11S1 to your computer For Mac opera tion there is no dedicated driver installation required at least not Of course not to forget about the cable between PC and external DAC for the NA 11S1 However this might be different for other USB The first 5 boxes represent the PC while the last box
27. ve Audio Device USB High Speed Audio Automatic Detection None convert to PCM 44 1 48 882 96 176 E are et Native DSD Capabili My DSD over PCM standard 1 0 Low level playback options M Exclusive access mode _ Use max 1 0 buffer size M Integer mode Maximum memory allocated for tracks pre load 1024 MB 25mn 44 1kHz 3mn 352 8kHz For bridge devices connected to a DAC Max sample rate limit No Limit Spl rate switching latency None Now please check that the Exclusive access mode is selected this is the hog mode that gives priority to the player and avoids mixed sounds Also check for the integer mode this is one step higher to by pass the UNIX mixer from the OSX Preferred Audio Device USB High Speed Audio Active Audio Device USB High Speed Audio 44 1 48 88 2 96 176 4 192 353 DSD64 DSD128 Native DSD Capabilty M Integer mode if avail on device integer Mode Mode 1 E Maximum memory allocated for tracks pre load a a 25mn 44 1kHz 3mn 352 8kHz Here in the red part select Exclusive access mode Direct Mode and Integer mode www marantz eu wiz AYS maraniz So now let s have a look on this screenshot for a final check At the top USB High Speed Audio is selected Active audio Device is on the USB High Speed Audio plus Native DSD over PCM DoP is activated and as you can see all the for mats that can be streamed are now shown in green And we also have the Exclusiv

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